California might be one of the most diverse states today but before Europeans arrived it was the most diverse place in North America.

Root languages of California

After contact with the Spanish through the mission period, and Gold Rush encroachment, entire cultures of Native Americans in California were nearly wiped out.

“Culturally and linguistically, (California) was the most diverse place on the planet when Juan Cabrillo first put ashore on Kumeyaay land in 1542,” former Gov. Jerry Brown wrote this year in his foreword to “When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California,” the catalog for an exhibition of the same name currently at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. “When we consider the hundreds of nations that lived here — their distinct languages, customs, and trading practices — the longevity of our native civilization takes on a new meaning. Ancient California was, in fact, the crossroads of a continent and home to a vast population.”

This map from the Library of Congress was in the Smithsonian’s’ Bureau of Ethnology Report of 1901. It shows where different Native American languages were spoken. California has the most of any region.

The map below shows where tribes were in pre-Columbian times and six distinct language families. Some of today’s tribes are trying to preserve and revitalize their sacred places and native languages.

The Penutian language was spoken in many places in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

Uto-Aztecan is one of the most widely used languages in North America and was distributed from Oregon to Panama.

Before the Europeans came, some estimate that California had more than 500 tribal groups speaking about 300 dialects of at least 100 languages.

Familiar places

Many of California’s indigenous names for places were changed by the Spanish but some places such as Topanga and Cahunga that end in “nga” are indigenous.

Lake Tahoe got it’s name from the Washo, Tah-hoo-he which means big water.

Yosemite comes from the Miwok word Uzumati and means bear.

Ojai in Ventura County comes from a Chumash word, A’hwai which is the word for moon.

Aguanga, in Riverside County, has no connection with Spanish agua, but is a village name of the Shoshonean Luiseiio Indians.

Local dialects

Takic is group of dialects in the Uto-Aztecan language. Both the Gabrielino in what is Los Angeles and the Juaneño in Orange County use Takic words. Here’s an example of pronunciation from native-languages.org:

Gabrielino

Sun: Taamit

Moon: Muwaar

Water Paara’

Juaneño

Sun: Temét

Moon: Móyla

Water: Páal

However long you’ve been in California it is worth mentioning that some families have been here 12,000 years or more. Here are a few local spots and the Juaneño/Luiseño pronunciation.

File photo from March 2014 of tribal member Jacque Tahuka-Nunez, of the Acjachemen Nation of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, who is burning sage as she performs a blessing on Sage Hill School in Newport Beach. The school is built on Native American land and seeks blessings whenever they have new buildings being constructed.

Learn more

Sources: California Indian Heritage Center, Culture areas map by A.L. Kroeber, “The Natural World of the California Indians” by Robert F. Heizer, “The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970” by Sherburne F. Cook, The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress, Heidi Lucero Cal State Long Beach

Crews from several fire departments are battling a major grass fire late Saturday afternoon that has claimed at least 500 acres in a rural area in Solano County between Vacaville and Winters, and is prompting mandatory evacuations, firefighters said.